Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1887-05-04

"AH, MISS BESSIE" HE CALLED OUT IN
ENGLISH.
Just then he caught sight Of John Mel and
checked himself.
II have come to look for black OK,
branded with heart and wv inside Of the
heart. Do you know if your uncle has seen it
on the place anywhere?"
mo, Meinheer Muller" replied Bessie,
coldly, "but he is down there" pointing at q
kraal on the plain some half mile away, "if
you want to, 60 and ask about it."
"Mr Muller" said he, by way of correction,
and with curious contraction Of the brow.
a'Meimheer' is all very well for the Beers, but
we are all Englishmen ROW. Well, the OK
can wait. With your permission, I'll stop
here till 'Oom' Croft (Uncle Croft comes
back" and, without further ado, he jumped
off his horse and, slipping the reins over its
head us all indication to it to stand still, ad-
vancetl toward Bessie with outstretched hand.
As he did so the young lady plunged both her
arms up to the elbows is. the bath, and it
struck John, who was observing the whole
scene, that she did this i'll order to avoid the
necessity of shaking hands with her stalwart
visitor.
"So.1.y my hands are wet" she said, giving
him cold little nod. "Let Inc introduce you,
Mr.. with emphasis) Frank Muller-Capt.
Mel, WHO has come to help my uncle with
the place"
John stretched out his hand and Muller
shook it.
"Captain7" he said, interrogatively; "a ship
captain, I supposed"
@No," said John, "a captain of the English
army"
"Oh, rooibaatjs (red Jacket. Well,
don't wonder at your taking to farming after
the Zulu war;"
II don't quite understand you," said John;
rather coldly.
"Oh, no offense, captain, no offense.
only meant that you rooibaatje did not come
very well out of the war. was there with
Piet Uys, and it was sight, l can tell you.
A Zulu had only to show himself at night and
one would see your regiments skreck Cstam-
pedel ike span of oxen when they wind
lion. And then they'd fre-ah, they did fire
anyhow, anywhere, but mostly at the
clouds, there was no stopping them; and SO,
you see, I thought that you would like to turn
your sword into ploughshare, as the Bible
says-but no otfense, I'm sure-no offense."
All this while John Mel, being English to
his backbone, and cherishing the reputation
Of his profession almost as dearly as his own
honor, was boiling with inward wrath, which
was all the fiercer because he knew that there
was some truth in the Beers insults. He bad
the sense, however, to keep his temper-out
wardly, at any rate.
II was not in the Zulu war, Mr.. Muller"
he said, and just then old Silas Croft came
riding up, and the conversation dropped.
MIR. Frank Muller stopped to dinner and
far on into the afternoon. His lost OK seemed
to have entirely slipped his memory. There
he sat close to the fair Bessie, smoking and
drinking gin and water, and talking with
great volubility in English, sprinkled with
Boer Dutch terms that John Mel did not
understand, and gazing at the young lady in
a manner which John somehow found u,l-
pleasant. OF course it was no affair of his,
and he had no interest in the matter, but for
all that he found the remarkable looking
Dutchman exceedingly disagreeable At last,
indeed, he could stand it ITO longer, and hob
bled out for a little walk with jess, who, in
her abrupt way, offered to show him the
garden.
"You don't like that man2" she said to him,
as they slowly went down the slope in front
Of the house.
mo; do you'"
II think" replied Jess, slowly and with
much emphasis, "that he is the most odious
man that ever saw, and the most curious"
And then she relapsed into silence, only
broken now and again by an occasional re-
mark about the flowers and trees.
Half all hour afterward, when they arrived
again at the top of the slope, Mr.. Muller was
just riding off down the avenue of blue
gums BY the veranda stood 9 Hottentot
named Jantje, who had been holding the
Dutchman's horse. He was curious, wizened
up little fellow, dressed III rags, and with
hair like the worn tags of u black woolen
carpet. His age might have been anything
between 25 and 60; it was impossible to form